Contact lenses can be manufactured by techniques such as lathing, spin-cast molding, or static cast molding, or combinations thereof. Commonly, lens designs are selected to provide vision correction to patients or lens wearers based on the refractive needs of the patient. Design data is entered into a computer, and the computer can then use the data to provide instructions to one or more machines to form a lens with the desired design. A large number of lenses can be produced with different designs or parameters to satisfy the vision correction needs of a large number of people. The design of the lens may be achieved by directly lathing a polymerized material into the shape of a lens of a desired design, or it may be by forming a steel insert with a desired design that can then be used to shape a lens forming surface of a lens mold, which then transfers the design to the lens formed with the mold. Optical designs are typically based on surface curvatures, lens thickness profiles, and optic zone dimensions that are selected to provide refractive vision correction. Lens designs can be quickly tested for desirability by providing a contact lens to a patient who can then put the lens on his eye, and then measuring the visual acuity of the patient's eye with the lens in place. If the visual acuity is not acceptable, the lens design can be rejected, and a new design can be proposed.
Treatment of some visual conditions, however, does not occur as quickly as refractive vision correction or visual acuity correction. In other words, to test a lens design and its effect on such visual conditions, a substantial amount of time is required to observe whether a treatment effect is provided by the lens design. If the design is not acceptable, a significant time delay will have occurred before realizing that a particular design is not acceptable and determining how to design a new lens. For example, progression of myopia or myopia progression (e.g., the change of a person's vision from a first state to a more myopic second state) is a relatively slow process, compared to visual acuity correction. Myopia progression involves elongation of the eyeball and other physiological and physical changes. Due to the negative consequences associated with myopia progression and the development of severe myopia, reducing or preventing myopia progression is an important goal in ocular healthcare. To test whether a lens design is effective in reducing or preventing myopia progression, clinical studies are typically conducted with the lens design for several months or at least a few years to determine the lens' effectiveness on reducing myopia progression. These time scales are undesirable from a clinical and a manufacturing point of view, especially if the lens design did not reduce or prevent myopia progression, and a new design is to be tested.